Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said Saturday he wants Congress to pass his new bill which would end the practice of "chain migration" where one member of a family gets in the country and gains legal status, and then can bring in an entire extended family.
"We have a chain migration law that allows once one person of a familial unit comes to the United States and gets legal status, they can bring everybody else in their family," Steube told Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda." "It's not just the nuclear family, children's and spouses, and fathers and mothers. It is everybody that's related to them."
Steube introduced his "Break the Chain Act" that would tighten up the current laws by rescinding family sponsored visa categories, making only spouses and minor children eligible for immediate relative status.
It also creates a five-year term, nonimmigrant visa for parents of citizens that does not include work authorization, according to the bill.
"That's why you're seeing so many unaccompanied minors being dropped off at the southern border ," Steube said. " It is because of the chain migration laws that we have in the United States that is current law. The child gets legal status, presumably through Joe Biden's 'Dreamer' act or DACA act, and then once that child gets legal status in the United States, they can bring in every single person related to them legally because of chain migration.
"My bill would break the chain and in chain migration, the United States, we still have a legal process from immigration in the United States, but you would not be able to bring in all of your family members just by virtue of you getting legal status if the bill were to pass."
Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, said it is "frustrating" the Biden administration has an open border policy and his "border czar," Vice President Kamala Harris has not visited the region to see what is happening on the ground.
"We are seeing skyrocketing people coming over here, and it's not just individuals looking for a better life," she said during the broadcast. "What we are seeing is people who are being smuggled in, human smugglers, and drug smuggling. We're seeing gang activity, seeing terrorists crossing over the border, and we have nothing from this administration to be able to combat it."
According to Steube, more than 178,000 illegal immigrants, many of them unaccompanied minors, were stopped by Customs and Border Patrol agents in April alone.
"While the Biden administration recklessly opens up our southern border and overwhelms CBP, Congress must work toward common sense immigration reforms that will end irresponsible policies, like chain migration," Steube wrote in a statement. "Not only will this legislation create a level playing field for legal immigrants applying for citizenship, but it will also help the federal government control the number of people we have entering our country each year."
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